Improved process and apparatus for making iron and steel



N UNITED NS'IA'rEs fPAfrEN'r QEEIOE;

JAOOE JAMESON, OE PHILADELPHIA, EE'NNsYnt-TANIA IMPROVED PROCESS ANDAPPARATUS FOR MAKING IRON AND STEEL.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 848,299, dateclMarch30,1869.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JACOB JAMESON, of Philadelphia, in the county ofPhiladelphia and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements inwProcess and Apparatus `for Making` Iron and Steel5 and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings,

making part of this specification, and to .the letters of referencemarked thereon, like letters indicating like parts wherever they occur.

To enable others skilled in the art to construct and use my invention, Iwill proceed to describe it.

My invention consists in certain improvements in the furnace formanufacturing iron and steel direct from the ore, patented to me on the31st day of March, 1868; andthe invention consists in providing closedchambers for deoxidizing the ores with suitable flnes and other devicesfor working the ore, and also in so constructing the furnace that it maybe used for heating the blooms, and thus dispensing with the separatefurnace ordinarily used for that purpose.

Figure 1 is a transverse horizontal section taken on the line ma: ofFig. 2. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section taken on the line y yof Fig. 1. Y l

The general construction of the furnace is the same as described in mypatent above referred to, and need not therefore be herein furtherdescribed.

lIn my former patent the ore was placed on a series of iioors, placedone above another,

and workedgradually over them and down to the reducing-furnace. In thepresent case, instead of this series of floors, I arrange a series ofclosed chambers, G, above each other, as represented in Fig. 2, therebeing any desired number of the chambers used.

At the rear end of these chambers Iprovide a vertical flue, H, havingopenings n opposite the chambers C, and also openings c, correspondingwith the doors E, in the rear end of the furnace, as represented in Fig.2, there being also an opening, n', at the lower end of the iue H,communicating with the flame and smoke flue'l). Slides ct are insertedin the` flue H, on a line with the lower floor of the chaml bers C, bywhich the communication between the flame-nues D and the chambers C maybe closed or opened at pleasure, as represented in Figs. 1 and 2 5 theseslides being operated by rods o, extending' out through the sides ofthefurnace, as shown in Fig. 1, or any other suitable manner.

The closed chambers C are also connected at their front end by anotherflue, F, as shown in Fig. 2, thisy flue F being provided with slides ornot, for closing communication between the chambers C, as may bepreferred,

though in practice I do `not find it necessary.

At the front end of the lower chamber (J, in its bottom, I makean'opening, as represented in Fig. 2, and arrange a slide, c, forclosing and opening the same at pleasure 5 this slide being operated bya rod, l, which may extend out through the side of the furnace or stopshort, as represented in Fig. 1, where it can be reached by a suitabletool.

In the side of the furnace I arrange a door, A, as shown in Fig. 1, thisdoor being so located as to give access to the heat-due D at 'the pointwhere the flame or heat enters the same from the reducing or meltinghearth B, as represented by the lines on Fig. 2; the object of thisbeing to permit the insertion of blooms into the flue D for heating themby the same heat that is used for the other purposes of this furnace,and thereby dispensing with the use of a separate furnace for thatpurpose.

The operation is as follows: The due H being closed by shoving in theslides a, the chambers C are charged with ore through the doors E at therear, it being passed through the opening c, over the slide a, andthrough the opening n into the upper chamber C, suitable uxes beingmixed with'the ore at or previous to its introduction. The ore isgradually worked forward through this chamber, and down through the flueF at its front, into the chamber below, and thence gradually throughthat to its rear end into and down the flue H, (the slide a at thebottom being withdrawn,) and thence forward through the heat-flue D tothe melting-hearth B. Or, the process may be varied by opening the slidec in the bottom of the lower chamber G and letting the deoxidized orepass at once from the chamber G, di-

rectly to the melting-hearth, without passing Y it through the heat-flueD, except at its extreme front end. Or, as is obvious, the ore may befed at once from the upper chamber C directly to the meltinghearth B byopenin 'different ores or different the slide c, without passing itthrough the lower chamber C or the heat-due D-these different plans ofoperating being intended to adapt the process to the varying conditionsand qualities of the ores to be treated. In practice any number of thechambers C may be used, four being the number that I find to IoperateWell in practice.

By this plan of dcoxidizingthe ores in closed chambers I keep themsepara ted from the flame and gases of the furnace, 'and at the sametime permit the escape of any gases evolved from the ore While beingdeoxidized, these gases escaping through the flue H, the slidesa beingclosed or opened, as experience shall showis necessary.

By this construction of the furnace I 'produce one that is adapted to amuch greater variety of conditions of ores, as' the deoxidizing processcan be varied very greatly, to suit conditions ofthe same kind of ore.

:I use in this furnace the damp blast, with all the fixtures describedinmy patent of March 31, 1868, With the exception of additions 'orimprovements herein described.

For iluxes I use chloride of lime, black 0X- the heat of the furnace forheating the blooms, v

I am enabled to produce iron or steel direct from the ore, atgreatly-reduced price or cost,

and of a superior quality.

Having thus described my invention, what I claimi A 1. The process oftreating or deoxidizing ores by means of a series of closed chambers,constructed and arranged to operate substanltiall-yas described. x 2. Areducing-furnace so constructed as to be also'used for heatingb1ooms,-su'bstantiall y as set forth. f

' JACOB JAMESON. Witnesses: H.. B. MUNN,

W. C. DODGE.

